MetLife has found that only one in five advisers are satisfied with the current range of retirement income and saving solutions as the industry marks the first anniversary of pension freedoms.
The new pension rules, enabling everyone aged 55-plus to choose how to spend their pension funds subject only to tax, have led to £6 billion being paid out and £7.5 billion invested to the end of last year, according to the Association of British Insurers.
But MetLife’s research shows just 22% of specialist retirement advisers believe there has been enough innovation and new product launches to enable savers to take full advantage of the new freedoms. 66% say providers should have done more in the past year to meet demand for new products.
Savers want more clarity, research found, with 56% admitting they are now more confused about retirement and pensions since the launch of pension freedoms on 6 April last year.
Advisers are keen to see pension freedoms succeed – 85% surveyed by MetLife say they would welcome the opportunity to recommend new products and features to product providers which they are confident would benefit their clients. However they acknowledge that innovation is challenging; nearly 55% agree that the cost and lead time needed to develop new solutions for drawdown has stopped many providers.
Simon Massey, wealth management director at MetLife UK, said: “Predictions of doom and disaster have not happened yet but a year on the major disappointment about pension freedoms for advisers is the lack of innovation and new thinking.
“The past year has been the ideal time to launch new concepts such as guaranteed drawdown but there has not been a strong enough response from providers.
“Savers can be excused for feeling more confused about pensions now than they were a year ago and many will be counting the cost of volatile markets after taking out drawdown contracts and seeing their pension fund drop in value.
“The industry has to do much more to provide certainty over capital and income along with the new flexibility that has proved so popular.”